220 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
rain : he folds his kumblee into an ingenious cowl and is 
safe. Many more are its uses. I cannot number them all. 
Whatever he may be called upon to carry, be it forest 
produce, or grain, or household goods, or his infant child, 
he will make a bundle of it with his kinnblee and poise it 
on his head, or sling it across his back, and trudge away. 
And whatever the kumblee cannot do, the koita can. It 
is an instrument midway between a hatchet and a pocket- 
knife, and consists of a broad, steel blade, curving round 
to a sharp point, and a short wooden handle, which looks 
simple, but is more ingeniously contrived for giving a firm, 
yet easy, grasp than the best tennis-bat that Ayres ever 
turned out. In the hands of one born to the use of it, 
there is nothing in the way of hewing, chopping, cleaving, 
peeling, or paring, that this instrument will not do. To 
say that the koonbee pares his nails with it is a fable, 
because he does not pare his nails at all ; but il you would 
know what he can do with it, watch him as he prepares 
the stony beetle-nut for his quid, or peels sugarcane and 
